Fresh Blood: The New American Immigrants

Ungar focuses on the human face of immigration in this highly readable but highly slanted survey. His accounts of the experiences of the new arrivals are illuminating, and occasionally heartrending, but his unfair loading of language becomes tiresome and undermines his position. Opponents of unlimited immigration are repeatedly described as "angry"; they "sneer", exhibit "tirades" or even a "frenzy" of "vulgar...patter", while those who support Ungar's views engage in "philosophical musings" or "meekly protest". The prospect of large sections of America becoming extensions of the Third World doesn't seem to bother the author, who seems to feel that border crossings cannot and should not be controlled, and "the number officially and legally admitted should more closely approximate the number who actually come each year". He recommends that American border activities concentrate on drug interdiction and public health measures, but it is unclear to this reviewer how those measures could be implemented in the chaos of an undefended border. (The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)